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Samuel Pepys and His Stones

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Samuel Pepys and His Stones Annals of the Royal College of Suirgeons of England (I977) vol 59 Samuel Pepys and his stones Sir Eric Richles MC MS FRCS Honorary Curator of Ilistorical Surgical Instruments, Royal College of Surgeons of England. Past Treasurer of Christ's Hospital Introduction enlightened lay opinion' was that the 'her- In the early hours of Wednesday 26th May editary' stone hitherto lodged in his kidneys 1703 Sainuel Pepys died at Clapham. His was carried into the bladder. Pepys himself death was reported to his friend John Evelyn attributed it to the weight of water he had by John Jackson, his nephew, who advised an drunk; it was attended by haematuria. He autopsy. This revealed a nest of seven stones recovered and on leaving Cambridge had in the left kidney, irregular in shape, weigh- acquired a wide circle of friends, a taste for ing 42'oz; they were linked together and the beer, and a BA. He was offered employment kidney was entirely ulcerated and adherent. by his cousin, Sir Edward Montagu, and in I begin with his death rather than his birth I655, at the age of 22, he fell deeply in love to show that as well as functional symptoms and married Elizabeth de St Michel, a French he had organic calculous pyelonephritis. Huguenot who was only I5. Recently Newman' aptly called the functional He soon began to have increasing symptoms symptonis 'the wind of colic'. They included of stone. In East Anglia stone in the bladder the oft-repeatedl distension and constipation of in children and ycoung people was common. mulcous colitis, all made worse by anxiety and They all had a similar diet and lived in the improved by relief after a successful operation, same environment; his mother, his brother, or on its anniversary, or by the magical and his aunt had stone. On 24th August i 66o properties of a hare's foot, especially if it 'he found his Mother was not very well and included a joint as advised by Benjamin Bat- gave her a pint of sack'. Notwithstanding this ten on 2oth January I665. Pepys was buried sensible treatment her pain became greater and in a vault of his own making near his wife greater and on 5th December she had just and his brother Thomas at St Olave's Church. nevly voided a stone which she had dropperA Samuel Pepys, the son of a tailor, was born into the fire; she found it again toi show to on 23rd February I633 at Salisbury Court near him. She recovered wvell and lived for six St Bride's Church in the City of London. He years. His brother John also had the symptoms came from an East Anglian family from whom and 'makes bloody water with great pain, it the Pepys of Norfolk descended. He spent his beginning juist as mine did. I pray God help youth partly in North London at Kingsland him'. Hi_.Autnt Jane at Brampton 'voided a and partly in the country at Brampton in great stone, the first time that ever I heard Huntingdonshire. He went to Huntingdon she was trouibled therewith'. Grammar School and from i646 to I650 to St Paul's Sch(ool, wvhere he received a classical Aetiology and site eduication and won a Spendluffe Scholarship at In the case of Pepys himself his first stone Magdalene College, Cambridge. was formed in the left kidney. There vwas, In I653, when he was 2o and still at Cam- however, a high incidence of primary vesical bridge, he had the first symptoms of stone in calculus in children wvhich inpired the Norwich the urinary tract. After a long walk to Barn- school of lithotomv described bv Batty Shaw'. well Abbey on a hot summer day he and his Bladder stone was endemic in Norfolk and in friends slaked their thirst at Aristotle's Well the surrounding countrvside. Suggested With great draughts of cold vater. On return causes wNere the cold north-east vinds, the he was seized writh the violent pain of renal chialk subsoil with resultant hard water, and colic and lay for sorme days in agony7; the the inadequiate supply of milk contrasted vith Paper read to the Section of the Ilistory of Medicine of the Royal Society of Medicine on 3rd March T976. Published by lpemission of the Fditor of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medcine. 12 Sir Eric Riches the abundant amount of beer, made from Composition native barley. The standard of living of the Primary stones from the bladder were lamin- farm workers was low; the average diet was ated, the layers varying with the reaction of deficient in cheese, meat, protein, and vege- the urine. Two are illustrated. One from the tables and contained too much cereal. William Middlesex Hospital Museum (Fig. i), removed England4 believed that a defective diet was by Mr Amott in I84I, came from a boy of the main cause, but by I949 Ridley Thomas5 I5 who had had symptoms for 9 years. An- found that primary bladder stones in youth other (Fig. 2), from a boy of I4, was removed had vanished between the years i 910 and by lateral lithotomy under general anaesthesia I930. This coincided with the change from by Mr Henry Mitchell in i8589; it was larger grain-producing to mixed farming. Andersen6 and adherent and slipped from the forceps at discounts a lack of vitamin A as a major cause the first attempt. Each has a nucleus of uric of stones and believes that primary bladder acid or ammonium urate with layers of calcium stones are caused by a diet consisting almost oxalate, uric acid, and calcium phosphate. exclusively of one cereal. He has shown per These are the endemic primary bladder stones contra that stones in the upper urinary tract of East Anglia in the 17th century. J G have increased concomitantly with a rise in Crosse'0, a Norfolk surgeon, reported that living standards7. 55% of bladder stones affected patients under Pepys lived well, certainly in comparison the age of 20. with the East Anglian farm labourers. Per- The picture has now changed; today bladder haps that is why his stones started in the kid- stone more often affects older patients and is ney; he had them already at the age of 20, associated with outflow obstruction or in- passed two, (after renal colic) when he was 32, fection or occasionally a foreign body or a para- and had them when he died at the age of 70. thyroid adenoma. One that descended to the bladder was re- moved when he was 25. It did not prevent Pepys's symptoms his taking a degree at Cambridge, working as Although Pepys did not start his Diary until a clerk in the Exchequer, and getting married. he was 27 (ist January i66o), nearly two years after he had been cut for the stone, he left a Primary stones in the kidney, especially record, written in I677 when he was 4511, of when fixed, are more likely to remain 'silent' the symptoms which made an operation essen- than those in the bladder, but they cause pain in the back, Pepys's frequent complaint. Either can cause haematuria; a bladder stone more often causes pain on micturition or movement. Pepys evidently had symptoms from both sources-chronic back pain from fixed renal stones and acute renal colic if a stone descended the ureter- as well -as the functional symptoms already mentioned. XTesical calculi coexisting with upper tract calculi are surprisingly rare. Swift Joly' found that out of I 97 patients with stone in the upper urinary tract, only 6 (3.04%/O) had stones in the bladder as well. In a similar series of 564 patients with stones in the upper tract I have found only 29 (5.14%) with stones also in the bladder. It seems probable that Pepys would fall into FIG. I Vesical calculus from a boy of 15 re- this small category of those who have both moved by perineal lithotomy by Mr J M renal and vesical stones; it was quite usual for Arnott in I84I. About the size of the ball used him to be unusual. in real tennis as played by Charles II. Samuel Pepys and his stones 13 a knife and a hook. The greater or Marian operation (1522) was used for Pepys. I will give the details but must first say that it was improved by Pierre Franco, who incised the bladder neck instead of tearing it as advised by Pare"4 and often made it a two-stage procedure. This operation remained in vogue until nearly the end of the I7th century. Many of the self-taught itiner- ant lithotomists used it". Lateral lithotomy replaced the Marian operation. Frere Jacques learnt the technique from Pauloni. After one successful operation he was allowed to operate in Paris. Crowds of up to 200 came to watch him; tickets were issued and guards posted. His mortality was ......... ........ high (40%) so he had to leave Paris and .. ...... - - 1 learn some anatomy. It was left to Cheselden FIG. 2 Vesical calculus from a boy of I4 re- of St Thomas's in I7I8 to perfect it; he was moved by lateral lithotomy by Mr Henry born too late to, operate on Pepys, whose Mitchell in I858. About the size of a modern lithotomy preceded Cheselden's appointment lawn tennis ball. by 6o years. tial. He wrote, 'I remember not my life with- Suprapubic lithotomy This, 'the high out the pain of the stone in the kidneys (even operation', was first performed 'faute de to the making of bloody water upon extra- mieux' by Pierre Franco in i 56 on a child ordinary motion)'.
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